Forgive Your Way to Success

Just a short post today – but an important one when it comes to your life and career success.

I saw a quote on line by Josh Billings, a 19th century humorist the other day. “There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.” This is some great common sense career success advice.

Mr. Billings was on to something here. I realize he was a humorist, that’s why he probably tied his point on forgiveness to revenge. Take revenge out of the equation. I think that forgiveness is the way to build and nurture the relationships that are so important to your life and career success.

It takes a big person to forgive and forget. It takes a bigger person to apologize. Yet, forgiveness and apologies help you build strong relationships and resolve conflict with minimal disruption the relationships you’ve worked so hard to build.

When you forgive, forget and apologize you are saying to the other person, “I value you and our relationship. We may have some differences, but our relationship is more important to me than those differences. Let’s go on in spite of them.”

By doing this, you have invited the other person to continue the relationship. You have given him or her the opportunity to save face. Face is not important to me, relationships are. I suggest that you adopt the same philosophy. An emphasis on saving face can greatly detract from your ability to build solid mutually beneficial relationships and to resolve conflict with minimal disruption to them. As the old saying goes, “An apology is the best way to get the last word.”

The common sense career success coach point here is clear. Successful people build and maintain a network of relationships. If you want to build solid relationships, forgive, forget and apologize. This advice is simple common sense, but it can be difficult to actually do – especially if you have a strong need to save face. My best career advice is don’t worry about face, worry about building and keeping strong relationships with the important people in your life.

That’s my common sense career advice on forgiving, forgetting and apologizing. What do you think? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts on these ideas. As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success.